Fayette Pinkney sang with the Three Degrees, the female vocal group who were dubbed “Charlie’s Angels” after the Prince of Wales declared them to be his favourite group. Pinkney, a founder member, had left by the time this royal endorsement led to a performance at Buckingham Palace for the Prince’s 30th birthday and at a party to celebrate his marriage to Lady Diana Spencer. But she was a key part of the line-up that earned his affection, singing on the group’s biggest hits, Year of Decision, Take Good Care of Yourself and the song for which Pinkney and the Three Degrees will be best remembered, When Will I See You Again.

Born on Philadelphia in 1948, Pinkney grew up singing in church, where she was spotted in 1963 by the record producer and songwriter Richard Barrett. Hoping to emulate the success of female trios such as the Supremes and the Ronettes, Barrett put together the Three Degrees.

Pinkney was his first recruit and she stayed for the next 13 years. But he had far greater difficulty in finding the right voices to accompany her. Eight girls came and went in the first nine months before the arrival of Helen Scott and Janet Harmon stabilised the line-up. A series of singles followed on various labels, including Swan, Warner Brothers, Metromedia and Neptune without significant commercial success and their breakthrough did not come until 1970 when they signed to Roulette Records. By then the line-up had changed again, with Valerie Holiday and Helen Scott joining Pinkney in the matching sequined dresses that were their trademark. It was this trio that proceeded to make the Three Degrees an international brand.

The title track of their 1970 album, Maybe, gave them their first chart success and was followed by I Do Take You and You’re the Fool. Their profile as a sassy, smart, cabaret soul act was further enhanced by a cameo appearance in the 1971 film The French Connection, which showed them singing and displaying some sparkling choreography at the Copacabana nightclub in New York and in Las Vegas as the support act to Engelbert Humperdinck, But their greatest success came when, in 1973, Barrett signed them to Philadelphia International Records. Owned by the producers and songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, the label was in the throes of forging a new, commercial soul sound to rival Detroit’s Motown as the sound of black America.

Spearheaded by acts such as the O’Jays and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, the Philly sound was built on sweet and smooth vocal harmonies and shimmeringly romantic arrangements and the Three Degrees swiftly became the label’s biggest stars.

Backed by the Philadelphia International house band MFSB (Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers), their first release, TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) became not only the label’s signature tune but the theme song for the popular US television show Soul Train, while their self-titled 1973 album for the label spawned three hit singles, Dirty Ol’ Man, Year of Decision and When Will I See You Again.

They became particularly popular in Britain, where When Will I See You Again spent most of the summer of 1974 in the Top Ten, including three weeks at No 1. The Prince of Wales, then 25, was only one of the two million who bought the record, smitten by the song’s unforgettably sensual “ooh ooh, aah, aah” intro and the cooing voices of Pinkney, Scott and Holiday.

The following year they had a UK hit with Take Good Care of Yourself, but in 1976, shortly after they had left Gamble and Huff and moved to Epic Records, Fayette left the group. The Three Degrees continued to be in the charts without ever quite repeating their success of the mid-1970s, but Pinkney’s singing was thereafter restricted to church while she studied psychology and went on to a career in education and counselling.

Fayette Pinkney, singer, was born on January 10, 1948. She died of acute respiratory failure on June 27, 2009, aged 61